I’ve always been interested in DNA but not in the sense that we understand it today; you see, two of my sisters died of Cystic Fibrosis: the first in 1944 and the second in 1954. My parents were cognizant of the fact that they had to have been carriers for the faulty gene to be transmitted to their offspring. However, at the time, there was no way of knowing anything about DNA and where this mutation had originated. There was no way of knowing that this is basically a European phenomenon and that each person of the couple carries one mutant gene. And, of course, we still wonder which line, on both sides of the family, carried the gene. I now have a nephew who has CF. Presently, scientists have identified the faulty gene but, as of yet, there is no cure.

I began actively researching my family roots around 1983. At this time, I discovered that both of my parents, of Quebecois origin, share some ancestors. Maybe only one family carried that gene but caused it to circulate among progeny who would later become the ancestors of both my parents. That is certainly one way the gene could have found its way into our family’s genetic make-up.

In the sixties, the opportunity never presented itself for me to take college courses in biology or zoology or botany, which might have given me some understanding of the importance of Mendel’s discoveries and of genetics. By the 80's, when we all started having an understanding of DNA, I began reading articles and books relating to DNA as well as Haplogroups. Three pieces of literature caught my attention: one was a book easy enough for an unscientific person like me to understand. It was a human genetics Time-Life book entitled Blueprint for Life. Journey Through the Mind and Body. It explained the human genome system and the double-helix molecule. CF was mentioned in the book! The second piece of literature was the bestseller series written by Jean M. Auel, a ruthless researcher who remains very authentic in her narration and descriptions as we follow the two deeply ancient homo sapiens characters on their odyssey during the Ice Age. These novels fall under the umbrella entitled The Magnificent Earth’s Children. You may recognize her Clan of the Cave Bear, or her Valley of the Horses, or the Mammoth Hunters, or her Plains of Passage and Shelters of Stone. I believe a film was made of her “Clan” novel. I loved these books, and in reading them, I just knew that she was describing the area of France where my family had lived. She was describing the Perigord and the area near Lascaux. I had been there. I had seen the caves where early man lived. The characters lived where my Courchesne (dit Foucault) ancestors had lived. The third of the influential books was entitled : The Seven Daughters of Eve by Bryan Sykes, published by Norton and Company. Bryan Sykes is the expert who was asked to examine the frozen corpse of the Ice Man. His explanations of our genetic journey from prehistoric times is very understandable, and he illustrates his explanations by creating the 7 daughters of Eve, who live at different times, picking up the chronology where the other left off, and who fan out of Africa on their journeys elsewhere.

Since 1985, I have been a member of the AFGS (American French Genealogical Society). Usually, every two or three years, I travel to France to visit the ancestral sites, looking for an ancestral habitat or church to put me close to the ancestors, looking for local books on either the family or the town and trying to understand the politics of their time and place. One of my genealogy colleagues at the AFGS introduced me to the National Genographic Project partnered by National Geographic and IBM. The purpose of this anthropological study is basically to collect DNA so as to decipher, in as much detail as possible, the migratory journey of humanity within and out of Africa. The study group wishes to collect over 100,000 DNA samples, hopefully 20,000 every year for 5 years, “representing a worldwide range of human diversity” in order to study the genetic markers that would provide information on the migration patterns and the early human origins of each contributor. What I had not understood before was that each new migration away from our point of origin in Africa left its genetic marker. The farther one’s early ancestors traveled, over thousands of years, that is, the more genetic mutations would occur. So, for example, Africans who never left Africa would have the fewest number of mutations. Africans who, over thousands of years, ended up in France or Iceland, would have quite a few markers. The markers represented mutations and geography. I jumped at the opportunity to find out what my family’s journey had been from Africa. Because I’m a female, my test would be what is termed the mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA). It would necessarily focus on my direct female line all the way into Africa. Little did I know that my test results would help genealogists determine once and for all if a certain woman, my ancestor, was of Mi'kmaq or European origin. Since Amerindians had traversed the Bering Strait thousands of years ago, and since my ancient great++++++++++++grandmothers never went any farther than Europe, that unknown woman who married Germain Doucet was not of Mi'kmaq origin.

I look forward to the day when geneticists will be able to tell me exactly when my own family arrived in France and precisely how they got there. I look forward to the day when scientists will be able to trace my family’s journey precisely from the era of Eve, over 45,000 years ago, to the present. For me, that will indeed be a most sacred, mystical event.

My matrilineal line is listed below.

PBS video entitled: “Journey of Man.” It is one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen.

My direct matrilineal ancestor is Marguerite Caplan. I don't believe she's considered Acadian, but she's mentioned on page 314 of Stephen White's DGFA. My Haplogroup is C.

I became interested in genealogy two years ago. My grandmother's line, a mixture of Acadian and French Canadian, was proving to be difficult and I could not get past my great grandmother. A friend sent me a link to the National Geographic Genographic project. I was fascinated by what they were doing, so I ordered a test kit. I received my results in November of 2005. Not being well educated in genetics, I misread the information and thought that it meant that there was some chance that my ancestor might be Native. I didn't realize that the results were conclusive. Even if I had understood the results better, I still didn't have an ancestor to apply the results to. A few months ago I finally managed to trace my maternal line back. I ordered a high resolution test (HVR2) which further confirmed that my maternal line has its roots in Canada. It took nearly a year from the time I received my results until I was able to name the ancestor who passed it down to me.

I seek the truth in my ancestry, whatever that truth may be. What is exciting to me is to learn where my ancestors came from. mtDNA testing has done that for my ancestors Edmee Lejeune, Radegonde Lambert, and now Marguerite Caplan.

[Since Barbara's Ancestors are part of the Dictionnaire genealogique des familles acadian by Stephen A. White, I believe her results should be included on this page.]

I started researching my families in 1978 and where we were living gave me access to excellent research materials. As I moved into the 1990's and my husband began talking about retiring I knew that my research time was drawing to a close. So I took stock of all the lines that were dead ends and those folks who were easily available and had YDNA and MtDNA tests done on as many as I could get my hands on. The first tests were done by Oxford but I switched to Family Tree DNA because of their ability to store samples for 25 years so I can take advantage of the new information that is coming out now. We are just now beginning to get a return for our efforts.